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Bread Crumbs

Steinhardt Discussion, “You Are What You Eat,” Philosophically Speaking, to Feature Graham Harman, Robert Valgenti—Feb. 19

February 4, 2014
193

For generations, we’ve heard “You are what you eat.” From a nutrition standpoint, the phrase’s meaning is clear—but what about when we trace it back to its philosophical origins?

On Wed., Feb. 19, from 2 to 4 p.m., NYU’s Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health (411 Lafayette St., 5th Floor [above E. 4th Street]) will host author Graham Harman and Philosophy Professor Robert Valgenti who will discuss Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach’s famous 19th-century phrase. The exchange will outline two possible ways of understanding the “being” or existence of those who eat, of food, and of the relations between the two.

Harman, Distinguished University Professor at the American University in Cairo, is the co-founder of an emerging European philosophical movement: Speculative Realism. He is the author of Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects (2002), The Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour and Metaphysics (2009), Towards Speculative Realism (2010), and Bells and Whistles: More Speculative Realism (2013), among other works.

Valgenti is an associate professor of philosophy at Lebanon Valley College and director of the College Colloquium. His research interests include 19th and 20th century continental philosophy, hermeneutics, contemporary Italian philosophy, and the philosophy of food. He is the translator of several essays by Italian philosophers into English, and his translation and critical introduction to Luigi Pareyson’s book Truth and Interpretation was published in 2013. His current projects include a critical study of the work of Italian philosopher and politician Gianni Vattimo and an introduction to philosophy through the experience of eating entitled “Conceptual Metabolism”.